Scottish baker delights fans with incredible cake sculpture of her pet beagle

A talented Scottish baker has delighted fans by making a nearly-lifesize sculpture of her pet beagle - out of cake.

Published 26th Nov 2019
Updated 9 th Aug 2023

Anna Dillon, 51, has turned her hand to celebrity caricatures including actor Sylvester Stallone, and Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, and makes the portraits out of Victoria sponge or Madeira cake.

Scottish baker beagle cake

Talented cake maker Anna with Steven Tyler, Rabbie Burns and Poppy the dog 3D cake. 

The mum-of-one, who has been making themed cakes for nearly six years, competes in baking shows around the UK as a hobby.

She was inspired to make a cake model of her puppy, Poppy, aged eight months, showing the beagle with her ears flying as she leapt through the air.

The one-and-a-half foot cake took her four days to make, and metal wire was used to structure it, taking three days, with another day for decorating it.

Anna said: "Poppy didn't take me that long, it was mostly just the structure, but when I get to the finer details I race through.

"The decorating took about a day. I used a ten millimetre threaded rod, with bolts underneath and a couple through her paws so you can't see it.

"It's about one-and-a-half feet tall. I was wondering if it would be strong enough but it worked fantastically."

For her competition cakes, Anna uses a mixture of edible and non-edible contents, including polystyrene, Rice Krispie treats, chocolate ganache, pasta scultura modelling paste and colours them using Sugarflair Airbrush paints.

Other famous faces who have captured her imagination for sculpted cakes include poet Robbie Burns, and Angelina Jolie's character Maleficent from the 2014 film.
The first she created was a commission, for a birthday cake in the shape of Captain America's face, in 2013.

Anna said: "My first shaped cake was Captain America with his face and a shield in the background.

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"Then it all took off from there."

Realising she had a knack for caricature and shaped cakes, in 2015 Anna entered her creations into the inaugural Cake and Bake Show in Edinburgh.

Wowing judges, she came second in the amateur section, which had a theme of fairy tales and children's characters.

Anna, a care worker, said: "I made a model cake of Angelina Jolie as Maleficent.

"The judges were zooming in with their phones and taking pictures.

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"When you go to competitions your heart always sinks because you don't think yours is good enough. But it was really good."

She converted her garage, in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, into a studio for baking.

Her husband Kenny, 50, and daughter Stephanie Burns, 28, have been very supportive.

She added: "My family's only just coming round to it. I don't let my husband help, he's terrible with art, but he's very supportive and drives me down to the cake shows.

"He's very proud of what I do and so is my daughter. I do this all part-time and I'm self taught. I love it because it's art, I'm quite an arty person.

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"I combined the cake making and art together and that's why I get these structures.

"Once I start I can't stop. I love what I do and I just keep it as a hobby. I've just learned how to use each and every medium that I have used.

"I would say it just takes time and patience to work out how you can use these mediums, and that's what I've done to get the results I've got today."

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